The events that took place on Sep. 11, 2001 in the United States of America, as well as the resulting fear of other aircraft hijackings, resulted in the passenger cabin(s) as well as the cockpit of more and more aircraft being equipped with surveillance cameras in order to continuously obtain information on the events taking place in the aircraft. Surveillance cameras of this type were installed, in particular, in the region of the entry doors of the aircraft as well as for monitoring the entry door of the cockpit.
Due to the lack of suitable cameras and camera housings, conventional and commercially available cameras were initially utilized, wherein these cameras were installed into the housing of a reading lamp of the type that was thus far used in the cabin ceiling only. These reading light housings were then installed in the cabin ceiling and in front of the cockpit door for quite some time, namely by means of a complicated mounting and adapter construction. However, reading light housings were generally not integrated into vertical surfaces (such as, e.g., galleys, lavatories, partition walls, etc.), but into ceiling areas only for reasons of cabin design. It goes without saying that a reading light housing is neither designed for accommodating a camera nor for being installed at an arbitrary location in an aircraft cabin such that this construction is associated with a variety of undesirable side-effects, for example, a significant installation depth of the camera housing as well as the substantial installation expenditure for the housing, in which the above-described mounting and adapter constructions were utilized.
However, the reading light housings may only be installed at such locations of the inside paneling, at which the installation depth behind the inside paneling is sufficient for accommodating the relatively deep reading light housing. Furthermore, a special connection and adapter construction may need to be designed and manufactured depending on the type and the design of the inside paneling in order to install the reading light housing with the camera into the inside paneling.